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Bug or just bizarre side effect?

So the trade route yields have changed quite a bit since the patch. Mostly for the better, I think is the consensus. What isn't quite so clear is how it all works out. I've played a game where it's seems quite rare to get a decent yeild where you're not giving the opposition two or even three times what you're getting which seems a complete reversal of what was going on prior.

In any case it has led to this rather strange situation in a new game I've started where I can make an external trade route for absolutely nothing. That is, there is absolutely no benefit to either party, zero, nada, zilch. I can't tell if this is following the adjusted TR logic or should be considered a bug. It's certainly counter intuitive!

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I don't think anyone knows the new formula for yields yet. How it all works is rather difficult to figure out. Thus we can't tell you if it is a bug or not. I can tell you that the best energy and science yields for you will be for your small cities to opponent capitals.

So the trade route yields have changed quite a bit since the patch. Mostly for the better, I think is the consensus. What isn't quite so clear is how it all works out. I've played a game where it's seems quite rare to get a decent yeild where you're not giving the opposition two or even three times what you're getting which seems a complete reversal of what was going on prior.

In any case it has led to this rather strange situation in a new game I've started where I can make an external trade route for absolutely nothing. That is, there is absolutely no benefit to either party, zero, nada, zilch. I can't tell if this is following the adjusted TR logic or should be considered a bug. It's certainly counter intuitive!

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1. Sometimes I see this happen on an internal trade route, and it's a display bug. Just opening the other city and maybe switching some tiles back and forth - but returning to the initial layout - causes the route to recalculate and get the appropriate values.

but...

2. Sometimes this happens because there is NO DIFFERENCE in the cities. In your example, it's turn 29 - not enough time for the cities differentiate. You don't have any Resilin or other science resources, and you probably haven't built a laboratory yet. If neither of you has Scientists or took Knowledge virtues, you probably have the same science output in your capitals, especially if you are both the same size. If you have similar terrain and neither has Aristocrats, you might have the same energy income as well. I note you have a river but no generators.

I think that was specifically referring to internal trade routes though. It really doesn't make sense that external trade routes should have this happen, but then very little with trade routes makes sense right now.

It has happened to me quite often with internal trade routes, probably because I tend to "clone" city builds and to expand in waves. Never happened to an external route before, though. I have not played the new patch yet.

So the trade route yields have changed quite a bit since the patch. Mostly for the better, I think is the consensus. What isn't quite so clear is how it all works out. I've played a game where it's seems quite rare to get a decent yeild where you're not giving the opposition two or even three times what you're getting which seems a complete reversal of what was going on prior.

In any case it has led to this rather strange situation in a new game I've started where I can make an external trade route for absolutely nothing. That is, there is absolutely no benefit to either party, zero, nada, zilch. I can't tell if this is following the adjusted TR logic or should be considered a bug. It's certainly counter intuitive!

Click to expand...

With you 100% on this one.
I cannot get more from a trade route than the other end ever gets. The only way it will work out os for local routes, which can start out quite nicely in favour of the base that owns the trade route but each time the route is renewed it is slightly worse than the time before. Very odd.
With trade routes to other colonies, there is literally no longer any point in doing this as they always get at least twice as much as I receive. I am not paying to develop a trade route that benefits the opponents colony....so it's killed that off for me except for internal routes only.

Did anybody check if the AI is smart enough to send trade routes to you that only benefit them more?

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Despite the large number of trade routes before the patch I rarely saw AI send route to my cities then or now. They seem to focus on internal routes. Perhaps they are smart enough but aren't weighing the value of science enough. Since internal routes give them gain at both ends it seems better than the gain minus the opponents gain from external.

There are currently four trade routes to my cities - to my big cities all.
And (I assume the arrows are from the perspective of their cities so ---> is what they are sending) all those trade routes are to my advantage. One has to send trade routes from small cites to get the trade advantage and the AI seems to slower to get those going.

Getting trade from opponent that is better for me too. I was the only trading partner on the continent though, so it might be that the cities sending bad trade routes aren't considering not sending them at all. They also didn't have a second city on the continent either so no internals.
Is it better to have a bad trade or no trade? If they already have the unit maybe but they shouldn't build one it there isn't a profitable route available.

I got an incoming trade route and did the math to see which one matched eat I was getting and the top numbers are always the source and the bottom the destination. The arrow pointing left is always you and pointing right is for the other colony.
This one is better for them so it might just be lack of options when they take a bad deal.

Even if your route doesn't give either side anything, the AI still likes you for it. It can be a useful tool to keep an AI friendly while you block them in with your own cities. Once they've been strangled for a while and you have an Affinity lead on them you can then eat them up.